Packaging apparatus.



A. A. CARPEH.

PACKAGING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED DEC.3I. 1913.

Patentd July 2, 1918.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

WA M WA. m aaw 5 Aw {a J A. A. CABPER.

PACKAGING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED DEC.3I. 1913.

l ,27 1 ,432. Patented July 2, 1918.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

A. A. CARPER.

PACKAGING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED 050.31. 1913.

Patented July 2, 1918.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

A. A. CARPER.

PACKAGING APPARATUS.

APPLlCATlON FI'LED DEC.3I. 1913.

Patented July 2, 1918.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

ALBERT a shame, or BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, Assmnon r THE CROWN coax AND' l UNITED STATES PATENT oFFIOE;

SEAL COMPANY OF BALTIMORE CITY, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, A QORFORATION or "MARYLAND.

To all wkom'it may concern:

Be 't known that I, ALBERT A. CARPER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Baltimore and State of Maryland, have in- This invention relates to improvements in means for feedingcontainers.

One general object of the invention is to provide a feeding device which will reliably feed containers suchas-bottles to a machine which is to perform some operations in connection with such containers, as for example a machine foifilling said containers, or a machine for applying closures to them.

A further object of the invention is to provide means for feeding containers to'a closure applying machine, sothat it becomes possible to use a compact and relatively small closure applying machine with loading means of large capacity'and still have the closure applying machine successively -handle and apply closures to all the containers delivered thereto. 4

With these general objects in view, the

invention consists in the features, details of construction and combination of parts which will first be described in connection with the accompanying drawings and then be particularlypointed out.

In the drawings,

Figure 1 is a vertical section partly in elevation of a mechanism embodying the best form of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view partly broken away of themechanism shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail view partly in section of the discharge mechanism; 1

Fig. 4 a horizontal section in the line 4-4 Fig. 5 a detail sectional view partlyi'in elevation of the capping mechanism;v

Fig. 6 a plan view of the bottle neck guideway;

Figs. 7 and 8 enlarged detail views partly in section showing the discharge vmechanism in different positions, and" Figs. 9, 10 and 11 detail sectionallviews of the discharge mechanismn While the particular construction of crowning mechanism employed in carrying the invention into effect may be varied,

PACKAGING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed December 31, 1913. Seria1No.-809,61 "6:

Patented that selected for the pi'irpose of illustrating July 2, 1918.

the invention is substantially the mechanism illustratedin the Painter Patent No.

638,354. Referring to the drawings, 1 indicates a hopper-into which the crowns are thrown in a mass, the crowns being delivered, by a suitable selecting mechanism not a bottle neck guide 2' is attached to the heads as shown in Figs. 5 and 6, this being necessary.

with a quick-running machine. The machine also includes a rotating carrier, as '4, this carrier being supported upon and rotating around a stationary central-post 5.

While, as hasbeen indicated, the devices by which the crowning is efi'ected may be varied in construction, in the particular mechanism illustrated, the carrier serves to support a plurality of reciprocating lifting plungers;6. As shown, these plun ers are provided with anti-friction wheels which. run on a trackcam 8 having a rise 9, indicated ,in'dotted lines in Fig. 1, which is so located as at the proper time to 'ca-usethe bottles to .be lifted and their tops forced into' capping heads 2, these heads beingsupplied with the usual bending dies which attach .the crowns. The plungers are inclosed by; a housing, as-6, and this housing serves to support a table 7 for receiving the filled bottles, this table being cut away as clearly shown inrFig. 2 to receive-the top of the carrier 4. The mechanism which has been herein described is; substantially that illustrated and described in the Painter Patent No. 638,354, above referred to, to which reference may be had for a detailed d'escription',.-o'f the construction; Also, to 1nsure the proper positioning' of the bottles in their respective supports, a yielding presser device is provided as shown at 65,

' this being arranged to crowd the bottles into their. respective supports, as will be a clear from the drawings.

. For the purpose of transporting conta ers, such as bottles, from a loading poig: which may, for example, be the discharg point of a filling machine to the capping machine, a suitable transporting mechanism is employed, this consisting 111 the bestembodiment of the invention of a conveyor arranged to transport bottles by mere frictional engagement with the bottles, said conveyer having a capacity such that it may serve as a storage space for containers intermediate the loading point and the capping machine. In order to render this storage space efiective for the purpose intended, the said conveyer or transporting device should run at a speed greater than corresponds to the rate of loading of containers at the loading point. That is to say, the conveyer tends to remove a container very rapidly from the loading point so that such a container tends to be carried immediately to a point remote from the point of loading. Means are provided adjacent the capping machine for positively discha'rgingthe containers from the advanced end of the transporting device to therespective bottle supports of the capping machine. This means for discharging the containers is not continuously operated although it is arranged to be operated by the capping machine and in a certain fixed relation thereto, but is held out of operation by a suitable trip mechanism arranged to be released by the arrival of a container in a predetermined position where it aotuates said tripping mechanism to release the means for discharging containers, which thereupon can be operated by, the capping mechanism in proper timed relation to sweep a container from the point where it oper ated the tripping device into the corresponding bottle support on the capping machine. By this arrangement, it is possible to carry on the operation of loading and capping-in dependently of each other, provided, however, that the capping machine be run at such a speed that it can cap containers faster than the loading operation can deliver them. Consequently, by this arrangement, if at any time it becomes necessary to stop the capping machine for a brief interval, such as usually suflices to make any adjustment which might be required, the containers which are delivered by the continued loading operation at that time may be al lowed to accumulate on the transporting device, so that the operation of the loading need not be interrupted. Then the capping machine may be started up and run at a rapid speed, whereby it will cap containers faster than they are being delivered by the loading means and hence will soon catch up with the work done by the loading means and thus reduce the supply of bottles which have accumulated on the transporting device. Of,course, it will be understood that the length of time which the capping machine may be shut down while the loading means is operating depends entirely on the capacity of the transporting device. An important feature of the invention is that there is permitted the use of arotary capping machine, the number of whose capping heads is not necessarily an aliquot part of the number of filling heads on any filling machine should the latter be used in connecform,in this case formed as a rotating table 37 having a hub 38 secured to a vertical shaft 39 journaled at its lower end in a bracket 40 secured to the housing, 6 of the capping machine, the shaft 39 being provided with a worm-wheel 41 engaged by a worm 42 on aworm-shaft 43, also suitably j ournaled, as for example in the said bracket, and provided at its inner end with a pin ion 44 driven by a crown gear 45 arranged to rotate with the rotary bottle-lifting devices of the capping machine. The rotating table 37 is mounted beneath a stationary cap-plate 46 '(Fig. 2) which is suit-ably secured to the work table 7' by bolts as'shown in Fig. 2, this cap plate having an up-turned flange 47 serving as a guide which is formed as a compound curve and acts in' conjunction with a corresponding guide formed as. an upturned flange 48 of a rim 49, to guide the containers from the loading point to the capping machine. The rim 49 is suitably secured to the table 7" as by bolts. The guide 47 is provided with an extension 50 which serves to guide the containers to the container pathway between the guides 47, 48. At the end of the container path'way nearest the capping machine, the flange 47 is deflected in a direction substantially transverse to the direction of travel of the containers in the pathway at that point, thus forming a fixed abutment, as indicated at 47 The corresponding opposite edge of the flange 48 terminates sufliciently short of the flange 47 to leave a lateral opening through which the containers may be dischargedfrom the transporting mechanism past the abutment to the respective bottle supports 36 of the capping head. For the purpose of sweeping the containers from the transporting mechanism through this lateral opening into the bottle support at that time in proper position to receive the respective container, a suitable discharge mechanism is employed consisting in the present example of a discharge arm 51 lo cated ina recess in the stationary cap plate and secured to a vertical shaft 52, which is provided with a crank arm 53 carrying a roller 54. The rolleris normally but yieldingly pressed toward the outer periphery of a suitable cam path 4 on the rotating portion of the capping machine by suitable spring mechanism. as for example the spring 55, secured to an arm 56 connected to the shaft 52. In the present example, the roller 54 engages the periphery of the rotating carrier 4, which periphery,-in cross section,

5 tude, once for each cap head carried by the capping machine.

The spring 55 tends to move the discharge arm inwardly to a distance suflicient to discharge a container from the container pathway into the respective container support carried by the .capping machine, whenever the roller 54 is permitted to ride down into the bottom of a recess in the cam surface of the rotary carrier. However, the discharge arm is normally held against the action of the spring 55 so that the roller 54 cannot be-forced by said spring into the deepest parts of the "cam recess. The means for holding the discharge arm comprises a tripping device having a member located in the path of travel of the containers, said tripping device normally holding the discharge arm from swinging in'a direct'on .to discharge a container, but being rranged so that when tripped by the arrival of a container in connection with its tripping member, the discharge arm will be released and then can be moved' by the spring 55 in a direction to sweep the container into a bottle support at the time when the roller 54 comes opposite a corresponding recess ingthe' cam surface. In the present example; this tripping mechanism comprises a lever having one arm 57 extending into the path of-the container at a position nearer the discharge end thereof, as will be clear from Figs. 2 and 7, the lever being pivoted at 57 to the bottom of the recess in the ca plate. On the same pivot 57' is mounte a swinging latch 58 having a notch at one end arranged to engage fa pin 59 projecting downward from the underside of the discharge arm' 51. The-latch 58 is connected by a spring 60 to the tripping lever 57 and the said tripping end in'the path of travel of the containers by means ofthe spring 61 attached to said lever 57 and to a pin 61' projecting upward from the bottom ofrthe recess in the capplate. The lever 57 also has a downward" extending lug 62 arranged ,to bear against one side of the latch,58 "so that when the said tripping lever 57 1s pulled by the tension spring 61 so as to hold its outer end in the path of. travel of the containers, the 'said spring 61. will thereby also serve to hold the latch 58 in line with the pin 59, a suitable stop 63 being secured to the bottom of the recess in the, ca plate. By this 95' 59 is fully seated in the notch of the latch ping lever is yieldingly held with its trip-.

means, the, engagement 0 the pin 59 in the.

from the explanation hereinbefore given,

58, the roller 54 is in engagement with a I portion of the cam. surface slightly below the highest point of such surface, as indicated at Fig. 7. As the roller 54 comes onto the highest point of such cam surface, the discharge arm is moved slightly backward against the action of the spring55 so that the pin 59 carried by said discharge arm will be freedfrom the notch in the latch 58, but, with the tripping device 57 in its normal position, the latch58 is held by the spring 61 tightly against the stop 63 and therefore as the roller 54 rides off a highest point of the cam, it will not be able to travel intoone of the lowest points of said cam because the pin 59 will travel back into the notch in the end of the latch '58 under the action of the spring 55.- When, however, a container, as indicated for example at 64, Fig. 7, is moved by the rotating table 37 against the outward end of the tripping lever 57,

the said outer end is swung forward by said container. 64 and thereby the spring 60 is extended, thus tending to pull the latch 58 away from the stop 63, which tendency is prevented by the pin '59 at that time in the notch in the end of the latch.- As soon, however, as the discharge arm is swung slightly away from the bottle supports by.

the arrival of a high point of the cam surface beneath the roller 54, as hereinbefore explained, the pin 59 is freed from the notch and the latch is then immediately pulled by the tension of the spring 60 until the parts have a position as indicated in Fig. 7, whereby the discharge arm 51 is freed and tends to move toward the bottle supports of the capping machine under the influence of the spring 55 when permitted to do so by the travel of the roller 54 into the deepest part of the cam recess. Consequently, any container which has pushed the outer end ofthe tripping lever into a position to release the dischargearm, will be moved by the discharge armat the proper time, from the transporting mechanism into the bottle support of the capping-machine at that time in proper position to receive a container. 1 As the cam'surface moves beneath the roller 54, the next point of the cam will swing the discharge arm backward away from the bottie a support. with it the latch 58 will be pulled back into their normal position to agam latch the discharge arm. The latch 58 has its outer end the pin to'reach its position behind the end of the latch lever so as to be ready to engage the notch in the end of-the same.

Thereafter the lever 57 and I provided-with an upward extending lug The operation of the device is obvious butmay be briefiy described as follows:

Bottles may be loaded onto the extension of the path for the containers, as, for example, by the guide arm 50'. The bottom of this extension portion is stationary and -hence the bottles are conveyed along this portion of the path merely by the crowding in of one bottle after the other. As soon, however, as'the bottles reach that portion of the path which over the rotating carrier 37, the bottles are moved rapidly ahead along the pathof the containers at a speed which advantageously is greater than merely necessary for'remo'val of bottles being loaded. That is to say, the tendency of the bottles is to be shot forward rapidly to the discharge end of the transporting device, this tendency, of course, being overcome where the path of travel for ,the container is entirely filled with bottles as, for example, when the capping machine is not in operation. The arrival of the forward container at the discharge end of the transporting device trips the lever 57 as hereinbefore explained and prepares the discharge arm for operation by the cam of the cap ping machine which acts on the roller 54. Upon the arrival of the proper bottle support 36 of the capping machine in a position to receive a container, the discharge arm is operated in the manner hereinbefore described to sweep the forward container into said bottle support. Thereupon, the'discharge arm is returned and the tendency of the springs 60, 61, is to again lock the dis-' charge arm and bring the, outer end of the lever 57 into the path of travel of the containers. If, however, a container has already been moved up to its extreme forward position, immediately upon the discharge of the prior container, the lever.57 will be retained in its unlatching position and the discharge arm will again operate at the proper time for discharge of said next container into the next succeeding bottle support. This operation of discharging bottles will proceed so long as the bottles continue to arrive immediately one after the other at the discharge end of the transporting device. If, however, owing to the fact that the capping machine is running faster than the rate of bottle supply, and owing to the speed of the transporting device, all

the bottles on the transporting device have been capped, or no bottle has arrived at the discharge end of the transporting mechanism, the lever 57 will swing into the path of travel of the containers and the discharge arm will be locked by the latch. No movement of said discharge arm in the direction toward the capping machine will take place until the arrival of a bottle against the trip lever.

From this, it will be seen that the capping machine may at. any time be speeded up to cap all the bottles at that time ready for capping on the transporting device, and

then may be stopped for the purposes of any adjustments or the like for the short time necessary to enable the loading opera tion to again fill the transporting device with bottles. This is a great convenience, because it enables the parts of the capping machine to be lubricated or adjusted while said capping machine is stationary, and as this can be quickly done, it is usuall unnecessary to shut down the bottle supply. Furthermore, by this arrangement, there need be no relation between the number of capping heads on the capping machine and the number of filling heads on any filling machine which may be combined with the capping machine, as is required in those cases where it is necessary tooperate two machines in a certain fixed relation. Moreover, the disadvantage of the latter operation, namely, that, due to wear of gearing and the like, frequent adjustments and replacements of parts are necessary, is entirely avoided. I

lVhat is claimed is:

1. The combination, with a rotary capping mechanism having a cam surface provided with a high and a low portion for each capping head, an oscillating discharge arm arranged to be actuated from said cam surface of the capping mechanism, a conveyer arranged to transport the bot-tles toward the said capping mechanism, and means for holding the discharge arm out of operatlon,

comprising a discharge apparatus, means actuated by said closure applying mechanism for operating said discharge apparatus, and means for preventing the operation of said discharge apparatus, said preventing means being arranged to be released by the contamers.

3. The combination, with a closure apply ing mechanism, of a carrier arranged to carry bottles to the capping mechanism, a discharge device arranged to discharge bottles from thecarrier into the capping mechanism, means located in the path of the bottles and arranged to hold said discharge mechanism out of action, and means ope ated by the capping mechanism for aetuazt ing said discharge mechanism.

4. The combination, with a capping mechanism, of a conveyer arranged to transport bottles toward the capping mechanism, a fixed'abutment in the path of said bottles and arranged to stop their forward movefor discharging the bottles past said abutment.

5. Th combination, with a capping mechanism, of a traveling platform arrangedl-o transport bottles toward the capping mechanism, a fixed abutment inthe path of said bottles and arranged to stop their forward movement, and means controlled by. the bottles for discharging abutment. v

6. The combination, with a capping mechthe bottles past said anism, of a conveyer arranged to transport mechanism in timed relation with the cap ping mechanism, and means for holding said discharge mechanism from operation, sald holding means having a member arranged to be engaged and released by the respective bottles as they reach the abutment.'

7. The combination, with a capping mechanism, of a conveyer arranged ..to transport bottles toward the capping mechanism, a triplexer located at the forward end of the conveyer, an oscillating discharge mechanism arranged to be actuated in timed relation with the capping mechanism, a latch device arranged to lock the discharge mechanism, and means intermediate the trip lever and the latch device whereby the discharge mechanism is unlocked upon the arrival of a bottle in contact with the trip lever.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, in the presence of two subscribing 40 witnesses.

Witnesses:

HOWARD S. GBIMES, WM. T. LAnnUsKEY.

ALBERT A. GA PERQ 

